I’m hopping along with Karen Gaunt, Kristin Van Valkenburgh and Jessica Sporn to share our SUMMER creations using Jessica Sporn Designs products.

The theme for this bloghop is “Welcome Summer” and that’s right up my alley ’cause we had lovely warm weather the last couple of weeks in The Netherlands. Summer was on my mind all the time and so I decorated my balcony to make it ready to sit and relax. I bought some furniture (yep, furniture… the balcony has a roof – the housing association calls it a “loggia” but to my opinion that’s too much of an exaggeration,) decorated the space with plants and even crocheted a granny square to cover the boring lawn chair.

And then I sat down to create a last ‘finishing touch’… can you see what the arrow is pointing at?
It’s a jam jar that holds a little candle, but of course I decorated the jar first using a Jessica Sporn Designs stencil… it’s a fun and easy project and it lights up your day (and evenings) – let me show you how I did it.

Take a glass jar (mine holded pees) and clean it.

I used this Krishna Deity stencil to decorate my jar. (Krishna is the god of compassion, tenderness and love in Hinduism.)

Tape the stencil around the jar. Make sure the part of the image that you want to use is right on the glass (in my case, the face of Krishna.)

Trace the stencil with a permanent marker.

I wanted to outline the picture with relief paint, but adding the stuff while the stencil is on the jar would probably destroy my stencil. That’s why I used a permanent marker first.

Once the image was outlined with a marker, I took off the stencil and traced the lines again with golden relief paint.

To color the image, it’s best to use special glass paint but I didn’t had any. I went to the store to buy some but I found the paint way too expensive… so what now?

Then I remembered I once used alcohol ink on a plastic sheet, and how lovely it looked. So I went home and searched for the alcohol ink. I had only three colors in my stash and they looked a bit boring to me, but I tested it on glass anyway to see how they would hold up…

Hooray, hooray, it worked lovely!!! The ink doesn’t come off easy… (it does when you scratch it but not if you grab the jar) and the colors worked excellent for this image, so I went with it.

Here’s the result.**

Flowers (from the same Krishna Deity Stencil) on the back side.

So now this little jar stands outside on the shelf, lighting my Summer evenings.

And what a lovely image it is to shine light through!

I hope your Summer nights (and days) will be filled with light, compassion, tenderness and love!

** If you want the image to stay on permanent, I recomment you use special glass paint.

And now for the GIVEAWAY

One lucky commenter will win this Woman Will Heal the World stencil from Stencil Girls Products, designed by Jessica Sporn. It’s brand new, just in store, and don’t you love it? I can think of many ways to use it!

All comments at all the blog hop participants posts count – so make sure to visit everyone and leave some kind words.

Marit Barentsen (you’re here)
Karen Gault
Kristin Van Valkenburgh
Jessica Sporn

The comments for this giveway closes Monday morning June 12th at 6 PM EST (for the Dutchies that’s Monday midnight) Jessica announces the winner on her blog on June 13th.

Today I’m hopping along with Denise Alloca, Sherry Canino, Karen Gaunt, Kristin Van Valkenburgh and Jessica Sporn to share our LOVE creations using Jessica Sporn Designs stamps & stencils and DecoArts products.

LOVE: of course that had to be the theme for today’s bloghop because it is almost Valentines Day. I understand in the USA it is common to give/send Valentines cards to all of your friends, but here in The Netherlands the focus lays on your partner and/or the one you have a (secret) crush on.

As you may know, when I refer to my partner I always use the word “beloved” so it’s obvious I love him very much, but we both are not the cliché roses-candles-fireplace romantic types (we are ‘romantic’ in our own weird way…) Creating a Valentines card was out of the question then… so what to do with “Love”??

I thought a bit more about the theme and reflected on ‘falling in love’ – and how I hated it to fall in love when I was young… well, ‘hate’ is too harsh a word, but I did not like the feeling either. I didn’t like how “some guy” could take over my logical working brain and be on my mind all the time, I despised how I acted silly and were not able to control my thoughts. There were happy and energetic moments too, I agree, but the overall feeling was “can we skip this part, just be together and go back to normal please.” I’m so glad my beloved and I love each other deeply without all that butterflies and pink bubbles….

And so I decided to create a face of a person who just fell in love and add the sentence “It’s just a silly phase I’m going through.” Yep, that’s a phrase from a song. Not the best song if you ask me, but it totally fits the feeling I want to express on the page.

Before I take you to my creating process let me tell you that you can find the giveaway at the end of this post… read on and you’ll get there 😉

First: preparations… I create different elements that I will combine on the page to collage a character/portrait. I start with creating a design that I want to use for the guy’s sweater.
I use DecoArt Fluid Acrylics Primary Yellow, that I smear on a blank piece of paper.

I like the design of the Dots and Dashes stencil

By mixing DecoArt Fluid Acrylics Primary Magenta with Titanium White I get a nice, pink color…

… resulting in this design.

I want a little texture on the background so I use Jessica’s Hebrew Calligraphy Hamsa Stencil and smear gesso through it (small, white photo.) When it’s dry, I spray some DecoArt Shimmer Mister Turquoise on the page and use a baby whipe to tone the colors down.

I want to add at least one heart to the page… to use as an eye. I search high and low in boxes and closets and I finally come up with this little chipboard heart BUT… it has two holes in it! (I remember a few years ago it was a trend to use all kinds of buttons and ‘button-like’ embellishments on your scrapbooking layouts… this piece must be a left over from that time.) However, it is the only heart shape I have so I go with it.

I paint the chipboard (Titanium White) and when it’s dry, I paint the heart again with DecoArt Antiquing Cream English Red Oxide. Do you know that stuff? You can give things an antique textured surface with it and create a distressed, aged effect.

There’s a tutorial video on how to use Antiquing cream (by Andy Skinner) here but in short: paint a background. When it’s dry, paint again with Antiquing Cream. Use a damp cloth to wipe off as little or as much ‘cream’ as you like. Seal it with a varnish.

My heart ends up looking like this.

Now it’s time to combine my elements… I cut a sweater from the earlier designed paper. I cut a head-shape from old left-over painted paper and position the ‘eye.’

Now it’s going fast…

• I don’t like how the heart looks on the face, so I paint it a bit more reddish. I also cover the holes with a ‘pupil’.
• I cut out a round shape to make for the other eye.
• A left over piece of monoprint goes as a nose.
• I paint the mouth with DecoArt fluid acrylics Cadmium Red Hue and
• for the hair I use a tiny little stamp from Jessica’s stamp series Build a Villa – Window Cube
• Finally, I add DecoArt Crackle Paste (mixed with a little yellow and red acrylics) on the cheeks and under the eye. The paste needs to dry on air (“do not try to force dry any of the crackle products with a heat tool, fan or blow dryer”) so I let this page dry overnight.

Next morning: I go back to my page and color the hair green to go with the nose.
I also outline the image with Fluid Acrylics Carbon Black for a bit more contrast.

Almost finished… all I have to do is handletter the phase I want to use on the page with a black marker and color the letters, using a small brush, with Fluid Acrylics Titanium White.

Now that was rather a long blogpost, I hope you liked to see and read about my creating process.

And now for the GIVEAWAY

One lucky commenter will win this Seven Hearts Stencil designed by Jessica Sporn. All comments on all the blog hop participants count – so make sure to visit everyone and leave some kind words. The list and links of the blog hop team members is at the end of this post.

And one commenter will win this little piece of art created by yours truly!

(11 x 21 cm – 4.3 x 8.3 inch)

It is a small sized mixed media face that is a bit similar to the one that I created in my art journal. Wanna win this “original Marit”?  Let me know the NUMBER of the artist/band name that sings the song the phrase on my art piece comes from. (Does this sounds cryptic to you? Then you probably have no idea who the artist is… )

So, go on then. Leave me a comment if you like to be in the draw for both giveaways and visit the other members and comment there to enlarge your chance to win the Seven Hearts stencil.

Marit Barentsen (you’re here)
Denise Alloca
Sherry Canino
Karen Gault
Kristin Van Valkenburgh
Jessica Sporn

The comments for these giveways closes Monday morning the 13th at 9 AM EST (for the Dutchies that’s 3 PM on Monday.) Jessica announces the winner on her blog on Valentines day, February 14th and I will post the name of the winner of my mixed media art piece on Wednesday, February 15th.

We have a great giveaway and because it was my birthday last Sunday I add an extra personal giveaway to the event. OH-MY, are you lucky today!

I bet you are curious to see what those giveaways include so before I take you to the small tutorial I created for you, here’s what you can win.

One lucky commenter will win Jessica’s Cascading Leaves stencil and Tree of Life stamp. All comments on all the blog hop participants count – so make sure to visit everyone and leave some kind words. The list and links of the blog hop team members is at the end of this post.

And then there’s my personal birthday-giveaway: a packet of Autumn/Halloween related papers, ephemera & embellishments. I also include 10 of my art-postcards and a little notebook.
This giveaway goes to one commenter on this blog.

Jessica gave us the title “Frightful Fall” to work with for this bloghop… eeeckkk. I understand where the ‘frightful’ comes from, I have a lot of American friends and bloggers among my followers, but we don’t celebrate Halloween in The Netherlands so this theme was quite a challenge for me! I decided to throw my birthday in the mix and make a card that you can use to send to someone who celebrates a birthday at Halloween. Or, when you alter the sentiment, this could be a card to invite your friends to a Halloween party. Are you in the mood yet?

Well, let’s move on to the tutorial then:

• Cut a heavy white paper or cardstock to card size (this example is approx. 5″ x 7.5″)
• Paint the background with orange acrylic paint. You could also take a piece of orange card stock for the basics, but I like the texture of the paint strokes on the background.

• Next, stamp with Versamark and Jessica Sporn’s stamp Krishna
• Emboss the image with black embossing powder.

The Shiva image does not look frightful or scary at all, and because I want this to be some sort of ‘scary’ card I looked for images of ‘scary eyes’… After flipping through many (many!) magazines, cutting out all sorts of eyes, I still had not found what I was looking for so I went online and found some drawings that I could use the eyes from.

• Give the face a different, more scary look by gluing different eyes over the stamped image.

• Next, take Jessica Sporn’s Hand stencil and find the first hand you want to use. Cover the surrounding openings/hands with paper so that you cannot accidentally stamp onto these also.

• Stamp and emboss the image of the hand, coming from the edge, with black embossing powder. You could also use black acrylic paint or paint spray, but I like the glossy shine that the heated embossing powder shows.
• Repeat the above step, using different images of hands.

• Write a text/sentiment on your card (alternative: print and cut strips of the texts, use alphabet stickers etc.) I found the following texts that you could use:
  – Have a frightful & delightful birthday.
  – (You’re invited to) a trick or treat BOO-thday.
  – Have a SPOOKtacular birthday.
  – May your Halloween birthday be less terrifying than aging.
• Ink the edges of the card (hold your paper at an upright angle and run it against the edge of your inkpad)
• Splattering some black ink or paint on the card makes for a more scary/spooky look and finishes the card off.

I hope you enjoyed my Halloween birthday tutorial.
Now, make sure you leave me a comment if you like to be in the draw for both giveaways and visit the other members and comment there to enlarge your chance to win the Cascading Leaves stencil and the Tree of Life stamp.

Marit Barentsen (you’re here)
Lizzy Wurmann
Sherry Canino
Kristin Van Valkenburgh
Denise Alloca
Jessica Sporn

The giveaway closes on Monday (October 10) at 9 PM EST (for the Dutchies that’s 3 AM on Tuesday)  Jessica announces her winners in her Tuesday blog post (October 11) and I will post the name of the winner of my extra giveaway in my blog post on Wednesday, October 12.

Although this wasn’t really a project that needed to be finished (I started this journal in April 2013, see this post with no end date in mind) but I love that it is now finished, closed and on the shelf next to my other journals. Doesn’t that look fabulous? Just seeing all those (hand bound) journals in different shapes and colors makes me happy!

So here are the two pages that completed my journal

Drawing a Line

Size: 34 x 30 cm – 13.4 x 12 inch. Materials: acrylic paint, cut out pictures, cut out texts, postcard, photo transfer (photo of a bridge,) washi tape, handcarved stamps, oil crayons, transfer paper, black and white markers.

Laat me wandelen en kwetsbaar zijn (“Let me stroll and be vulnerable”)

Size: 16 x 30 cm – 7.7 x 12 inch. Materials: gesso, acrylic paint, page from an old book, cut out texts, cut out image (you didn’t really think that was me did you? Man, do I wish I was that slim.. it’s a model that I cut out of a fashion magazine,) transfer paper (the handwriting,) graphite pencil, black and white markers.

Last week, The Daisy Yellow E-Zine came out and if you read last weeks’ post, you know that there is an article that I wrote published in it. Tammy, the founder and creator of this zine, is a very creative, inspiring, loving and generous lady (you should definitely visit her blog Daisy Yellow) and she let me

GIVE AWAY 2 OF THESE E-ZINES

Did you already purchase this zine? NO PROBLEM! You can still enter this giveaway and if you are a winner, Tammy will refund your payment. How nice is that!?!

To make a chance to win this zine, all you have to do is leave a comment at this blogpost in which you let me know why you would like to receive this e-zine. (Extra compliments addressed to me are welcome of course, but won’t give you extra ‘points’ 😉 )

The giveaway closes next week, Monday December 14.

Thanks for visiting my blog and see you soon {probably on Wednesday with a desk-photo; it’s been a while since I joined the woyww-desk-hop-event and I’m starting to miss it… }

Yep, you are in the right place… that is, if you like both art journaling and magazines. Last month, my art got published in the latest issue of Stampington’s “Art Journaling” and Stampington & Company informed me that I could give away an issue to all my US followers.

Now I do have a lot followers from the US (hi guys!) but because I live in the Netherlands, I also have a lot of online friends and faithful followers outside America. I do not want to leave those sweeties out of the draw so I will order another issue of the magazine that will go to one lucky winner living outside the United States.

Yes, you read that right,

I GIVE AWAY TWO (2!) ISSUES

Here’s a glimpse of my article that is in this issue

but of course there is a lot more to enjoy.

I read the magazine from cover to cover and back again, enjoying the different articles and art styles. I especially liked seeing the pages of Hope Wallace (Well Traveled.) Her travel journal reminds me a bit of my Chronicles art journals. I was in ooh and aaw over the art from Ella Wilson (Steam of Consciousness) and I was happily surprised to find an article from my friend Glenda Tkalac in the magazine. There’s also tips from the artists and techniques to try in the magazine.

So… what do you have to do to win this magazine?
Simple,

leave me a comment in which you let me know what country you live.

I do take compliments too 😉 and you ARE of course most welcome to like me on facebook, share this post etcetera, but that won’t give you ‘extra points’ or something. Leaving me a comment telling me where you live is enough to be part of the drawing.

I will announce the winners on NOVEMBER 11

(that’s my blog anniversary folks… I will be blogging for 7 years then!)

I’m looking forward to see all your comments.

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 26

There’s something I have to tell you about the next two spreads (week 27 & 28.) If you are Dutch you can of course read the journaling and will understand why images of breasts show up on both pages; for all English speaking peeps: in week 27, a preventive x-ray photo was taken of my breasts. In the Netherlands, all women over 50 have to get a preventive x-ray to see if everything is alright. In week 28, my doctor gave me a call to tell me they ‘found something’ on the photo. “A shadow” he called it… and I had to make an appointment with a specialist in the hospital right away. Panic set in but I could go to the hospital a few days later already for further investigations and everything turned out to be alright, no breast cancer here, phew!

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 27

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 28

GIVE-AWAY WINNER!

On to the winner of the on-line workshop now…

A lot of people commented on my giveaway and shared the information about “Mixed Emotions” – the on-line art journal workshop that I teach together with Michelle Rydell. Thanks so much for all your enthusiasm and sharing the link!

I let the random generator do its work and the winner is:

KELLY (KellySCreativeDreams )

Congratulations Kelly (I sent you an email girl.)

It’s nearly weekend and I plan on working on the ‘messed up’ canvasses (see former post.) I bought me a new pot of white acrylic paint yesterday and might just smear it on the canvasses and start over… or maybe leave some underneath layers visible. I will go where the canvas leads me. After all, it is called ‘intuitive painting.’ 😉 I wish you all a wonderful weekend. Splatter some (white) paint!

A lot to show, a lot to tell… and a busy day ahead so let’s get going…

I skipped the golden oldie last week because of the woyww-anniversary but today I show you a scrapbook layout again – lifted from one of my old scrapbook albums.

(I don’t create ‘traditional scrapbook layouts’ anymore but every Wednesday I dive into my albums and lift a ‘golden oldie.’ The layouts I pick are random, YOU – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week and what layout I should show… )

This week’s request came from Elizabeth Harms & Yoda – from Queenartoypia – who asked me to open album 3 and show layout #6. {click on the image to enlarge}

This spread is made in 2007. Because there are all sorts of photos on this spread I did not get the colors right photographing it – but you get the ‘feel’ of this page. Yes, that’s me at different ages. The title says “You’re getting older, Marit.”

And on a NOTE: both Jenneke and Kim asked me to open album 7 and show layout 7.
I was asked to show that before… the post/layout can be find HERE girls!

Are you participating in Tammy Garcia’s Index-Card-A-Day 2013???

I was honored when Tammy asked me to co-operate and contribute a tutorial
to her event. Today, she publishes the tutorial on her blog with which I made
these examples.

When I write this post, the ICAD post is not online yet (I am ahead in time here in Europe) but later today you should find it on the Daisy Yellow blog.

Edit: the tutorial is online. You can find it HERE

WOYWW #209

Last week, at the fourth anniversary of WOYWW, I wanted to visit the complete list of participants but I didn’t manage to get to them all… sorry gals/guys, you are with soooo many 😉

I did swap my ATCs except for one… yep, I have one ATC left.

Sooo – if you have one spare and like to swap it with me, email me your address (find the email-button in the side menu) and I send it to you.

I only have received one ATC from my swap yet (thank you Alipeeps!) and am waiting for some more to come in… when they all are here I will make photos to show to you.

On to what WOYWW and for which it is intended: showing your work desk.
Mine can be found here these days

Yesssss… finally, the sun showed and being in my studio just felt like a shame. So I grabbed a bunch of Index cards and some tools and headed for the garden. Here’s my improvised desk.

Now onto something really exciting concerning What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday ánd FEATURING magazine [I am the founder and editor-in–chief of the latter.]
For the ones who never heard of it:

“FEATURING is a printed publication – shipped worldwide – that showcases mixed media and more from amateurs – who make the most wonderful art pieces but don’t dare to call themselves ‘artists’ – as well as from ‘professionals’ who make a living from their passion. FEATURING offers artists from all over the world, handmade books, mixed media, scrap layouts, photos… you name it. Readers will also enjoy glimpses into studios, background stories and insightful interviews: Oh, and don’t forget inspiration. You will definitely find a lot of inspiration!”

As you know, WOYWW is hosted by Julia Dunnit, and we from FEATURING interviewed her for an article in the magazine. The magazine is heading for the printer’s office this week so we’re in the publication stage YAY!!

The article is of course illustrated by photo’s of desks – after all, that is what WOYWW is all about – and besides Julia’s desk you will see photos from WOYWW-participants Annette, Sara, Eliza, April, Maisie Moonshine and Gabriele. Awesome, isn’t it?

Wait, it gets even better!!

FEATURING & GAUCHE ALCHEMY became BFF’s

If you PRE-ORDER the newest issue, you’ll be entered for a chance
to win 1 of 5 Gauche Alchemy ACME kits!

Ooohhhh, don’t you just LOVE that company?
I DO!!! It is that I am the owner of FEATURING magazine and will get a copy for free 😉 otherwise I would order this issue immediately myself.

OK… enough for the shouting – if you wanna know more you better go to the FEATURING website or get the latest news via Facebook and Twitter.

I’m off to start the rest of my busy day… I am afraid I won’t see that improvised desk today but who knows, maybe tomorrow?
I wish you all a nice and sunny day.
Do something good with it.
Make an index card!

Sorry for the noise guys, but I have reasons to celebrate this week…
LOOK!

Yep, the second issue of FEATURING is out and MAN am I proud
of my team – the magazine is again filled with wonderful articles!
I also thank the contributors who send in articles and art – you guys
are all amazing and made this issue as fabulous as the debut issue.
Maybe even ‘fabulouser.’ (I know that is not a word but I’m so excited
I made it up 😉 )

During the next week, we will present sneak peeks of the articles
on facebook (you do ‘like’ that, don’t you?) and also send out tweets.
We may not be able to make #Feat2 into a ‘trending topic’ but we
may at least try…

More good news:
when you order
Issue 2 of
FEATURING
by October 30th
you will
automatically
be entered to win
this terrific book
‘Alternative Art
Journals’ by
Margaret Peot.
We give away
five (5!) copies.

(Persons who pre-ordered Issue 2 are already entered into this giveaway.)

So here’s all the info for you in a list:

• If you’d like to see inside issue 2, click here.
• Read the entire line up of the second issue here.
• Also, if you haven’t purchased Issue 1, it’s still available
  for purchase here.
• Click here to read all about how to enter your artwork
  or article ideas to FEATURING magazine.
• Remember to order your copy of Issue 2 before October 30 to be eligible to win a copy of Margaret Peot’s “Alternative Art Journals”.

On top of all the excitement, I felt also loved this week.
Loved by my beloved, my friends, my family and even by nature
’cause look at this amazing phenomenon.

Every Friday, I write a haiku for ‘Haiku my Heart’ which is hosted
by the lovely Rebecca. Visit her blog for the list of participants:
Recuerda Mi Corazon

And here’s one last ‘act of love’ before I ‘lay my weary head to rest’
after a busy week. (No, I’m not going to sleep. It’s the middle of the
day and I’m not tired at all – but I like that sentence so much that I
thought I’d use it… ha!)

Anyway, here’s the mono print I worked on for my friend and
soul sister Lenny. Sunday is her birthday and I give her the moon!

Moon for Lenny

(The moon is made out of silvery paper, all shimmery and silvery
and reflecting so it's pretty difficult - if not impossible - to
get that right on a photo)

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!
Go read a magazine! 😉

I have some fun photos to show.

And a haiku.

Oh, and an art journal page.

And yes… a winner for the giveaway…

In fact: TWO winners!

Enjoy!

For Haiku my Heart

Can you believe this audacious guy was on my window? I just had to take
a picture!!! (I removed him afterwards, but the damage was already done)

Haiku My Heart is a wonderful place where people from all over the world
post beautiful photos and and write amazing Haiku. It is hosted by Rebecca
and you can find the list of participants here at Recuerda Mi Corazon.

Remember the faces that appeared on my last art journal page?
I cut out a whole bunch of them at the time and here’s the other page I made
using those shapes. I’m not sure if I like it though. I did when I started working
on it last weekend, but now I’m not so sure.

Oh well, you can’t always have a WOW…

Face in the crowd

(29,7 x 42 cm - 11.7 x 16.9 inch)

Finally: you were waiting for this weren’t you?
(Or did you scroll down right away 😉  )

We have come to drawing the winners of my give-away!

Here’s how I did it.
I devided the comments into two groups. Three actually:
the ones who prefered the AJ package (20) the ones who prefered
the scrapbook package (11) and the ones that didn’t make a choice
or liked both – yeah, right… you wish!  (7)

The latter were added to the scrapbook-package drawing – to equal
the groups. I ended up with this:

I used the random generator at www.random.org

For the ART JOURNAL PACKAGE the generator chose this:

Congratulations to this Dutchie in Germany!

For the SCRAPBOOK PACKAGE the generator chose this:

Congratulations to this ‘naughty girl’…

I will email you to get your addresses ladies!

One more congratulations goes to… my brother!
He’s far, far away from us (he emigrated to Canada with his family years ago)
and it was his birthday yesterday!! Hope you had a lovely day ‘broertje’.

I don’t know if his package arrived yet, but when it does I will show
on my blog what I made for him.

That’s it for today folks…
Be happy and enjoy the weekend!

By day I wrote articles for the Dutch scrapbook magazine Creatief met
Foto’s and the evenings were filled with answering emails. You can
imagine that I usually crashed on the couch after that. I didn’t hold a
brush or marker in my hand all week!

Now that I am over that first shock, things are settling down and life
got pretty much normal again. Pfew. I even had some time ánd energy
to work on my weekly ‘Chronicles’ page in the weekend! I needed that!

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 40

(23 x 31 cm - 9.1 x 12.2 inch)

Used materials/techniques: old encyclopedia pages, pages from an atlas,
gesso, magazine images (eyes), Caran d'Ache watersoluble crayons, black
sharpies, Ranger distress ink, clear embossing powder, alphabet stamps

The stamped words are clear embossed. While stamping the words,
I suddenly noticed that the ink wouldn’t dry properly on the background
layer of gesso. While writing the black text, I smeared out the ink with my
hand. Luckely I saw it in time and I decided to ‘fixate’ it with embossing
powder. It gave a special touch to the page too, so I’m quite happy with
this ‘accident’. (You can still see some stains/smears in the right corner)

The page I ripped out of an old encyclopedia showed an image of ‘The Scream’
(painting by Edvard Munch) and that gave me the inspiration to cut out heads.
I have that big atlas that I bought on a flea market and it looked perfect to me!
I cut out more heads then you see on this spread. I used them on another page
which isn’t finished yet.  I’ll show you next time.

The weather has completely changed in the Netherlands. The first days of
this month were sunny and warm (with Summer temperatures on my birthday!
I don’t think I ever experienced that before!) but now it’s cold, grey and rainy.
It makes me start to think of the winter… and I already start to look forward
to the music event ‘Top 2000’ on the radio ánd on my blog in the week after
Christmas! Some of you may remember the fun we had year?

If you don’t have a clue what it is that I am talking about (or to get in the
mood?!) here’s the post with the announcement from last year.

Aaah… I know it’s a little early to talk about it yet, but I can’t help
but smile when I think about this fun week filled with music and art!

Two more things I wanted to say:

• There’s a FEATURING badge for grabs on the FEATURING website
  Feel free to copy the code and put the badge on your blog.

• Don’t forget about the give-away! I’ll draw a winner on Friday!!

See you on Friday, enjoy your week!